NEW CASTLE — Students from 14 elementary and high schools made their way to Holy Spirit Church on Oct. 7 to celebrate the Blessed Mother on the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. More than 400 young people joined Bishop Koenig and representatives from the Catholic Schools Office in reciting the Glorious Mysteries of the rosary.
Five students each led a decade of the rosary, beginning with a short reading. The students came from Padua Academy, Holy Angels School, St. Elizabeth School, Holy Cross School and SS. Peter and Paul Elementary School. Anthony Vitalo of St. Ann School and Parish provided the music.
The rally, which has taken place for nearly 20 years, drew students from second grade through high school. SS. Peter and Paul School traveled the farthest, coming from Easton, Md. The annual event is coordinated by the Catholic Principals Organization.
At the end of the service, Bishop Koenig told the students he remembered as a young boy wanting to know more about his father when his father was a boy himself.
“The best way I was able to know my father as a young boy was through my grandmother,” he said.
Similarly, he continued, we can gain great knowledge of Jesus “by looking to the Blessed Mother.”
Holy Spirit Church is the home of the Shrine of Our Lady Queen of Peace, the stainless-steel sculpture outside the church. Bishop Koenig said the sculptor, the late Charles Parks, wanted to tell us about Jesus through Mary. The height of the shrine is 33 feet, and Jesus was 33 years old when he died. The late Bishop Michael Saltarelli dedicated the shrine in May 2007.
He added that St. John Paul II also loved Mary.
“He really wanted to be like the Blessed Mother and give himself totally to Jesus,” the bishop said.
The day included photos of each school’s students with Bishop Koenig in front of the shrine. Most of the schools did that before the service, but a few joined the bishop in the brilliant sunshine afterward.
